Cal State Fullerton's Season Comes to an End After Epic Battle Against Stanford

JUNE 19, 2003 - An unlikely power display helped Stanford beat Cal State Fullerton and move into the College World Series championship round.

Three innings after Jonny Ash's first career home run tied it, Danny Putnam hit a two-run homer in the top of the 10th to give the Cardinal a 7-5 victory Thursday night.

"Jonny's could have been the gamer, and mine fortunately was," Putnam said. "Watching the ball go out there was a lot of adrenaline flowing. It was unbelievable. It's what you dream about."

Putnam, 2-for-5 with three RBIs, hit a 2-2 pitch from Darric Merrell into the right-center field stands after Ryan Garko led off the inning by getting hit by Merrell's first pitch.

The win set up a best-of-three championship matchup, starting Saturday night, between Stanford (50-16) and Rice (55-11), which advanced Wednesday with a victory over defending champion Texas.

The Cardinal, playing for the championship for the third time in four years, are looking for their first CWS title since winning back-to-back titles in 1987-88. The Owls are trying for their first NCAA title in any sport.

It was the first extra-inning CWS game since the Cardinal beat the Titans 5-2 in 10 innings in 2001.

Ash said associate head coach Dean Stotz predicted he would hit his first homer in the College World Series.

"I was making some good swings in batting practice back at school and he told me 'Jonny, you're going to have a big hit when we get to Omaha,'" Ash said.

"That's the kind of things that make for champions," Fullerton coach George Horton said.

Cordero said he let a fastball get into the hitting zone on that one.

"I wasn't pitching him any different than anybody else," he said. "It was a fastball. It was supposed to be in but I left it out over the plate too much, and he put a good swing on it."

Chris Carter also homered for the Cardinal, and David O'Hagan (7-1) scattered three hits over 4 1-3 relief innings for the win. The Titans left 15 runners on base.

"We got some clutch hits and clutch performances when we were a little short-handed," Stanford coach Mark Marquess said. "We walked seven, we hit five and there's 12 free base runners, and somehow we found a way to win."

The game-winning homer was Putnam's second of the tournament and 16th of the season. He also drove in five runs with a homer, double and two singles in a 13-6 elimination-game victory over South Carolina on Tuesday.

The Titans (50-16) took advantage of a record five hit batsmen by Stanford starter Matt Manship to build a 4-1 lead.

There was a scary moment in the third when Fullerton shortstop Justin Turner was hit in the face by a pitch while attempting to bunt. He turned to avoid the pitch, but the ball hit him in the face. With his face bloodied and swollen, Turner left the game assisted by trainers. X-rays taken at a hospital revealed contusions but no fractures and only a chipped tooth. He also sprained his ankle trying to avoid the pitch.

Turner returned to the dugout in the 10th inning, limping and the left side of his face badly swollen.

"It kind of gave us an emotional boost," starting pitcher Jason Windsor said. "We had something to work off and gave us something else to win the game for. Unfortunately, we just didn't get the job done."

Stanford made it 4-3 on Carter's two-run homer in the sixth, but Cal State Fullerton added a run in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single by Justin Smyres -- Turner's replacement.

Ash tied it in the next inning off Titans star closer Chad Cordero after Sam Fuld hit a one-out double.

Manship hit two batters in the third and both led to runs. Ronnie Prettyman singled in another run in the fourth for the Titans after Danny Dorn became the fifth Titans player hit by a pitch. P.J. Pilittere tripled and scored on a wild pitch in the fifth for the three-run cushion.

Fullerton loaded the bases with two down in the bottom of the eighth but O'Hagan got Kyle Boyer to fly out to center to end the threat.

"I always seem to go out and get other people out of jams, then I go and seem to fall apart," O'Hagan said with a smile. "I feel fortunate the coaching staff has stuck with me even though I've been a little erratic."

The Titans stranded 13 runners through eight innings, including nine in scoring position.

"We just didn't seem to be in the cards today," Horton said. "We had 15 runners left on base. Every time we hit the ball on the nose, it seemed like there was a guy in a Cardinal uniform there waiting for it."

JUNE 18, 2003 - Carlos Quentin hit two home runs and John Hudgins stymied the Cal State Fullerton offense as Stanford stayed alive in the College World Series with a 5-3 win over the Titans on Wednesday in Omaha, Neb.

Quentin slammed a two-run homer in the first to give Stanford the early lead and added a towering solo shot in the eighth for an insurance run to continue his mastery of the Titan pitching staff. The right fielder is 4-for-8 with two runs and four RBI in two games against CSF in Omaha.

The Titans looked as if they were in command of Hudgins early, scoring a run off the Cardinal ace in the second and two more in the third. Junior P.J. Pilittere recorded his third home run of the year to open the scoring for CSF, and junior Shane Costa added a two-run double to score Ronnie Prettyman and Justin Turner in the third.

Cal State Fullerton starting pitcher Wes Littleton overcame his tough start to hold Stanford scoreless from the second through fourth frames. However, he ran into trouble again in the fifth. The right-hander allowed three consecutive singles, the third plating Jed Lowrie to tie the score 3-3. After a sacrifice bunt put runners at second and third, Littleton uncorked a wild pitch to score Chris Carter and give Stanford a 4-3 lead. Littleton induced an inning-ending double play by Jonny Ash to avoid any further damage. In fact, the junior got a double play in each of the three innings he allowed the leadoff batter to get on base.

However, Hudgins thoroughly silenced the Fullerton bats for the remainder of the game. Fullerton managed only one hit after the fourth inning, a leadoff single from Pilittere in the ninth. The Titans did get the leadoff man on base in three of the last six innings, but had only one runner advance to second base during that span.

Littleton pitched six-plus innings, allowing six hits, four runs and two walks. He struck out two as well. Ricky Romero, Travis Ingle and Sean Martin each pitched in relief for the Titans. Ingle surrendered the solo blast to Quentin in the ninth to provide the extra cushion for Hudgins.

Hudgins threw 135 pitches in the complete game effort, yielding five hits, three runs (two earned) and striking out seven.

Cal State Fullerton and Stanford play a rematch on Thursday to determine the Bracket One champion and the team that advances to the best-of-three championship series. Game time will be either 11:00 a.m. (PDT) or 4:00 p.m. (PDT), depending on the outcome of tonightís Texas-Rice game.

JUNE 15, 2003 - Justin Turner hit his first career home run, and Wes Littleton and Chad Cordero provided four innings of hitless relief as Cal State Fullerton defeated Stanford, 6-5, in a winnerís bracket game on Sunday at the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.

The win improved the Titansí record to 50-14 overall and kept them undefeated in Bracket One at 2-0. Stanford and South Carolina meet on Tuesday at 11:00 a.m. (PDT) in an elimination game, with the winner needing to beat Cal State Fullerton twice to capture that side of the bracket. Meanwhile, Cal State Fullerton needs to beat the Cardinal or Gamecocks once to advance to the CWS Championship Series. The Championship Series pits the winners of Brackets One and Two in a best-of-three series to determine the national champion.

Cal State Fullerton next plays on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. (PDT).

The Titans snapped a three-game losing streak to Stanford at the College World Series in the most closely contested game of the tournament so far. The Titans jumped on Stanford starter Mark Romanczuk in the first as P.J. Pilittere doubled home Turner, who had walked. Turner, a freshman shortstop, increased the lead to 3-0 in the second with a two-run homer that landed just inside the left field foul pole.

Stanford responded with some power of its own in the third. Brian Hall hit a two-run homer off of Titan starter Dustin Miller, and one out later, Sam Fuld added a solo shot to tie the game at 3-3.

In the bottom half of that frame, Fullerton took a 4-3 lead as Jason Corapci slapped a double to left field to score Pilittere, who led off the inning with a walk. The Cardinal took their first lead of the game after Chris Carter connected for a solo blast in the fourth and Carlos Quentin added an RBI-double in the fifth.

The Titan bullpen took over from there. Littleton, making his first appearance on the mound since May 17, retired all six batters he faced through the sixth and seventh innings. Meanwhile, the Titans tied the game, 5-5, as Turner scored Corapci with a single in the sixth.

Fullerton scored the winning run in the seventh. After Shane Costa was thrown out trying to turn a single into a double, Pilittere followed with a single. Richie Burgos then belted a deep fly to right center that bounced off the glove of Quentin for an RBI triple.

The Titans turned to Cordero after Littleton allowed a ledoff walk in the eighth. He immediately induced a double play grounder and struck out Carter to end the threat. The closer struck out the first two batters in the ninth before getting pinch hitter Donny Lucy to ground out to second base to end the game and pick up his eighth save.

Turner went 3-for-3 with two runs scored and three RBI to lead the Titans at the plate. Costa, Pilittere and Corapci added two hits apiece. Catcher Kurt Suzuki set a CWS single-game record by getting hit with a pitch three times. The three HBP also ties a CWS single-series record.

JUNE 13, 2003 - Shane Costa belted a three-run homer and the Cal State Fullerton pitching staff limited a potent LSU offense to just five hits as the Titans opened the College World Series with an 8-2 victory on Friday.

Cal State Fullerton, making its 12th CWS appearance, improved to 49-14 on the year. The Titans will meet Stanford in a winnerís bracket game on Sunday, with first pitch scheduled for 4:00 p.m. (PDT).

After falling behind 1-0 in the second, the Titans began to assert themselves on offense. Kurt Suzuki opened the third with a bunt single and Jason Corapci followed with a walk. After a sacrifice by Ronnie Prettyman moved both runners up a base, Suzuki scored CSFís first run on a wild pitch by Tiger starter Nate Bumstead. Justin Turner walked to put runners on the corners, and Costa promptly sent an 0-1 offering into the right field seats for a 4-1 lead.

The Titans continued to attack in the fourth inning with three more runs. Kyle Boyer singled, stole second and came home on an errant throw by the LSU right fielder after a single by Danny Dorn. With two outs, Prettyman singled to drive home Dorn, and scored a Turner double down the right field line.

Cal State Fullerton would tack on one more run in the sixth to increase its advantage to 8-1.

Junior Jason Windsor pitched 5.2 innings and struck out six to improve his record to 11-2. He allowed four hits and one run while throwing 97 pitches. Sean Martin hurled 2.1 innings of relief and allowed LSUís only other run. Martin came on in the sixth with the bases full of Tigers and got Ryan Patterson to fly out to left field to end the threat. Chad Cordero pitched a perfect ninth.

Seven Titans recorded at least one hit, including two apiece by Boyer and Suzuki. Prettyman went 1-for-3 with two RBI and Boyer added a pair of stolen bases to increase his season total to 26.

Bumstead allowed eight runs on nine hits in 5.2 innings and was saddled with the loss. His record fell to 11-4.

Cal State Fullerton hopes to reverse its fortunes against Stanford on Sunday. The Cardinal beat the Titans twice in Omaha in 2001 and once in 1999. However, Cal State Fullerton opened this season with a three-game sweep of the Cardinal at Goodwin Field.